CHARACTERS. 
great number of tenants, trades- 
men, and dependants; and as the 
Jatter attended public offices of de- 
votion, they stood forth under the 
direction of their masters, and 
passed for the bulk of the Moza- 
rabs. The religion of these peo- 
ple lay in applauding and clapping 
their masters the actors, who played 
their parts so as to excite the pity 
of other Christians, the contempt 
of Jews, and the hearty abhorrence 
of the Moors, who for their sakes re-~ 
jected Christianity itself. In con- 
templating the little Spanish king- 
doms, the eye of an historian, fa- 
tigned with beholding a succession 
of crimes, turns away from monas- 
377 
teries, and miracles, and. martyrs, 
and a thousand other fine things, 
which are exhibited instead of vir- 
tue: but in observing the Moza- 
tabs, who were the same sort of 
people, of the same religion, and 
in the same counuy, the eye is re- 
freshed with a mixture of liberality 
and virtue, just as it is in a landscape 
of rocks and deserts intersected with 
rills and vallies. No probable rea- 
son can be assigned for this, except 
that in the Moorish governments 
the frantic inventions of the monks 
were never in the least supported 
by the reigning princes: but in 
the Christian states they very often 
were. . 
NATURAL 
